


thirst

by sinningpumpkin



Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Alternate Universe - Vampire, Blood and Violence, M/M, Vampire Hunters, Vampire Turning
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-08
Updated: 2020-09-08
Packaged: 2021-03-07 07:35:37
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,546
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26349457
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sinningpumpkin/pseuds/sinningpumpkin
Summary: The monster laughs and closes the distance between them. Its eyes are black and bottomless. “Animal or not, I don’t take kindly to strangers who hurt my fledglings.” They’re separated by only a few paces now.Felix takes a long, slow breath and slides his fingertip over the trigger. “Perhaps I should introduce myself then.” The vampire stares at him and then draws a gloved hand out of its pocket. It waves in a theatrical invitation and Felix takes another deep breath. “My name is Felix Hugo Fraldarius and I’ve been contracted to exterminate your nest.”~Or, vampire hunter Felix is cornered and turned by Sylvain.
Relationships: Felix Hugo Fraldarius/Sylvain Jose Gautier
Comments: 4
Kudos: 100





	thirst

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Battalion_Stallion](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Battalion_Stallion/gifts).



The new client staggers into Felix’s office at dusk. At first, he seems like a beggar who’s stumbled through the wrong doorway, but his eyes widen when he spots Felix. “Oh, thank Goddess.” The man is heavy set, but pathetic looking despite his stature. Felix lays aside his pen and notes, folding his gloved fingers over his lap as the man comes up to his desk. “You are Sir Fraldarius, yes?” Felix gives a small incline of his head--though no one has ever called him that, not even since the deaths of his father and brother. “I have a job for you.”

The rake of Felix’s eyes over his tattered clothing and dirty skin must be obvious. He digs into his pockets and pulls out a small satchel, heavy with silver. Felix holds out his hand and estimates the amount by the weight of it. “Ah, you are looking for an extermination.”

The man nods. “A nest in my burrough. They’ve become more active. Parents go missing at night and the children are afraid to play even during the day time.” Felix has heard the story a hundred times over. It’s rarely true. He loosens the strings on the satchel and peers inside at the shiny silver. “I figure it is one sire and less than ten fledglings.”

Felix’s mouth curves. “Yes, most nests are.” The man finally goes silent, properly cowed by his useless information. Silver puts Felix to work, not sob stories. “I shall rid you of them.” He tucks the satchel of coins into his desk drawer. “If I find that there are more fledglings than expected, or those of a younger age, you will owe me double what you’ve given so far.”

The man goes pale. Felix fixes him with a cold, steady stare. Finally, he nods. “Anything to make the streets safe again.”

A fortnight to scout the area. Seven days to plan and seven to exterminate the nest. “Yes, your streets will be safe by the next full moon.”

~

Without any other running contracts, Felix sets out immediately to the slums at the edge of his city. Night has fallen heavily by the time he climbs from his coach, cool air nips at his exposed skin and the grime of these people sticks to his expensive clothing. All the buildings slant toward each other, standing only with the will of those that inhabit these tenements. A whorehouse stands on the corner and another ramshackle place reeks of poppy--but nothing seems to move.

Felix had assumed the man who hired him to be exaggerating, but in this place teeming with filth, there is only silence. He slides his hands into his trouser pockets and begins to stroll along the narrow, cobblestone streets. 

He knows Fidahrid better than anyone. Even this scummy corner of his city is familiar enough to traverse at night. He is the only one in a hundred kilometer radius who offers these services, quick and reliably. This city has become his hunting ground, just like the monsters that feed here. He wanders between the gas street lamps, avoiding their flickering orangey glow as he slips through the alleyways.

Obviously, the humans have been terrorized back into their homes. If Felix could find someone moving under the dim veil of night, it would almost certainly be one of those monsters. He rests the heel of his hand on the butt of his revolver as he walks. It’s a comforting reminder of his power, not so easily lost even alone now.

A dart of black ahead of him catches his attention. He continues his leisurely pace, even as the urge to run and catch and kill burns through him. His overcoat swishes at his heels, loud in the silent, still night. He’s still focused on that minute little movement, when a little finger of wind curls through Felix’s hair.

He spins and draws his pistol in a single, smooth movement. He takes one shot at the flickering darkness that’s stalking him, but the demon isn’t that easy to pin down. They all outmatch him in strength and speed, he has to be creative to properly put them down. When he isn’t immediately taken to his knees, he realizes the thing is playing with him. Probably a young fledgling excited about toying with its meal. Felix can use that to his advantage.

He spins on his heel, willing his eyes to lose focus, to pick up on the inhuman energy that radiates from these things. His revolver finds its way with him, an extension of his arm as he lifts it and shoots. He aims in the direction of the burning attention that makes the hair at the back of his neck raise on end. The instinctual fear that he’s cultivated and trained into a part of his arsenal.

The bullet flies true. Not enough to kill the beast, but it slows down, no longer a blur of darkness and power. In the narrow space, its pulsing rage and pain is clear. It slows to a stop, gripping its arm as it stares at Felix. As expected, the thing is young. It doesn’t look it, corded with muscle and scars dipping underneath clothing. But older beasts lose the color of their eyes, irises going as dark and deep as their pupils. This one is missing an eye, but the other is still a brilliant, watery blue. It almost looks human.

A sharp whistle ricochets around their little space. The thing lifts its head. The air shifts and for a moment, Felix is alone as the beast flees. Then, another appears ten feet ahead of him. This one is no stupid fledgling. He’s dressed like a gentleman with sharp dangerous eyes and hands hidden in his pockets. Felix stands tall as the thing approaches with a loping, too graceful gait. “Seems like the kitten has wandered out to the wrong side of town.”

Rage flashes through Felix and he resists the urge to waste a bullet on the taunt. “I am no animal.”

The monster laughs and closes the distance between them. Its eyes are black and bottomless. “Animal or not, I don’t take kindly to strangers who hurt my fledglings.” They’re separated by only a few paces now. 

Felix takes a long, slow breath and slides his fingertip over the trigger. “Perhaps I should introduce myself then.” The vampire stares at him and then draws a gloved hand out of its pocket. It waves in a theatrical invitation and Felix takes another deep breath. “My name is Felix Hugo Fraldarius and I’ve been contracted to exterminate your nest.”

Things blur together after that. Felix fires three times and the beast evades them. They dart around each other, vicious weapons within inches of each other but never quite finding their marks. He takes another shot, but the tremble of his breath makes the bullet swing wide. This monster has the audacity to laugh. While nearly doubled over with misplaced glee, Felix lifts his revolver and the final bullet finds its mark. It pierces through the beast's shoulder in a spray of tar and gore. A howl of pain pierces the night and the little dance of violence they’ve been doing, devolves into an all out brawl.

A rush of air hits him in the face and his wrist explodes with agony. His gun goes flying and the monster is on top of him, snarling in agony, black blood oozing onto Felix’s clothing. He knees it hard in the belly and the onslaught of primal rage lessens just long enough for Felix to draw his blade. He slashes for the ribs, but they twist on the wet cobblestones. Felix’s hair is coming loose and it makes a good handle for the beast to drag him around by.

The tip of his dagger catches on the monster’s clothing, slicing through his waist coat and nicking at skin. Far from enough to stop the pulse of his thrall. It fills Felix’s senses, sweet and sticky and erotic, like the edge of an orgasm or the last pulse of pleasure. But he knows this lure, he’s been trained against it since he was a boy. Instead of relaxing into that delightful sensation, he pushes out of it, using the one image he knows best.

Glenn’s broken, mutilated body. The vixen above him, the tips of its hair gone pink with blood. Everything had been wet with blood, the thing’s hands and the stones beneath Glenn’s body. Felix had been ready to die that night, stumbling through the streets, looking for his brother as his father had told him to do. He was only ten, but seeing Glenn laid out like that, he knew there wouldn’t be much else to live for. The demon did not take him then. It fled. Felix knelt over the cooling body of his brother until morning, when Rodrigue found them.

Those flashing images banish the thumping pull of sex and desire, until Felix kicks the weight of the monster off him and staggers to his feet. Now would be the time to cut his losses, or at least attempt an escape before he can be pulled limb from limb. Survival instinct crows in his brain, begging him to escape the violent pressure of this predator all around him. Instead, he rounds on the monster and slashes at its throat.

A pulse of disgusting, invigorating power hits him again. He resists it, remembering Glenn and his father and the blood that has been spilled by his family for years. Still, it throws him off balance. The beast catches his hand with a cool leather grip. He kicks at the thing’s knee and gets taken down to the cobblestone for his trouble. His wrist is jammed up between his shoulder blades, until his joints threaten to give. Screeching pain rolls through him, but in the end, it is the sickening, manufactured desire that makes him drop his weapon.

Sticky like tar, sweet like honey, the vampire drapes itself along Felix’s back. It’s cold. It doesn’t breathe. Felix’s entire body thrums with adrenaline, kickstarting his arousal as saliva pools under his tongue. There’s a mouth at his ear, murmuring words he can’t hear over the thundering of his blood. Fear and lust mix into a dangerous cocktail, one that could serve to be deadly as razor sharp fangs slide over his throat. “So sweet, and I haven’t even tasted you yet.”

The tease is as terrible as a bite. Felix presses back against it, looking for an escape. The vampire grips him with a steely power and he knows there’s no escape in sight. Another heavy wave of thrall washes over him and he trembles like a leaf. “Mercy, mercy,” he finds himself muttering, barely able to push the word through the haze of the monster’s power.

“Mercy?” The thing mutters, a slick tongue slides over his skin and Felix’s belly turns. “I don’t wish to slaughter you.” Against his will, Felix is reminded of Glenn. It isn’t enough to push through the phantom grip of the monster all over him. “I like you too much for that.” Big, cold hands slide over his hips and up to his ribs squeezing and massaging until Felix can barely breathe. “Darling, this is a gift.”

Sharp fangs slide through his skin before Felix can disagree. Pain surges through him, bright and demanding. Thrall pulses in time with his heart, scatters pink spots across his vision and makes him  _ moan _ as blood gushes out of him. The vampire pulls back and laps at his throat, groaning its own pleasure as it drinks Felix down with noisy excitement. Through it all, Felix can feel something else too. A shuddering in the tips of his fingers, something in his veins that burns and aches and makes him feel about ready to crawl out of his skin.

The vampire pulls away from him. Blood pulses out of the wound in Felix’s throat sluggishly and messy lips drag over his jaw and cheek. “You’re doing wonderfully.” Its voice is low and throaty. Felix realizes it’s enjoying this and tries to thrash out from under it. His body only fives a weak wiggle that has the beast laughing. “Easy, easy, or else you’ll hurt yourself.”

Its mouth seals again over the wound in his throat, tonguing at the ragged flesh until it opens wider. It’s around then that black converges in Felix’s vision and sends him down, down, down.

~

Felix wakes to pain. He keeps his eyes squeezed shut and keeps his breathing somnolent and long. There’s brightness behind his eyes, but he feels no warmth of morning on his skin. He must be laying on the floor, wrapped in bed linens. His spine aches where it’s been pressed into the floor, joints stiff and angry with pain. Several truths come to the surface at once. He was attacked by a vampire. He is still alive. And he is no longer human.

With those truths swirling in his head, he opens his eyes. He’s in an apartment, a fancy one by the appearance of the ceiling. It smells like poppy and tobacco and something markedly less human. Sitting up seems close to impossible, so he twists his head to the side instead. His throat screams with agony and he lifts his fingers to the point of pain. It’s the bite mark laid into his throat by that red headed beast. It’s already healed over, even if it burns like it’s still fresh. He stares at the emerald colored wall and swipes his fingers across his cheeks. It can’t have been more than a day since he last opened his eyes, considering the lack of stubble on his jaw.

“He’s awake.” A feminine voice from somewhere behind him. Felix’s entire body coils, preparing for a fight.

“Ah, go get Sylvain.” Neither of the voices get any closer to him and Felix draws the linens tight around himself. Footsteps recede and then two sets return quickly.

Someone approaches him, but Felix doesn’t turn to greet them. “Are you alright?” This voice he recognizes. The one of the beast who ended his life.

Rage burns through him and with a power he’s never known, he whips around. He smacks the beast across the face. As he sprawls back, Felix rises from his nest of bedding with an inhuman grace and speed. For the moment, that’s of no concern to him as he lunges forward to kick the vampire in the stomach. The moment the strike connects, Felix turns to flee.

He makes it two steps before he faints. His vision comes back into focus and he’s on the floor, lethargic and nauseous. A face comes into his line of sight, swimming slightly before he can recognize it. The vampire’s smugness is much worse when well lit. “Are you going to scratch my eyes out if I lift you up onto the lounge?” Felix is thinking of doing many worse things, but when the vampire picks him up, Felix is barely able to keep his eyes open.

He’s laid out on a velveteen sofa. He’s been stripped down to his tunic and breeches, and he twists into the back of the couch to hide from the rest of the room. A pillow is wedged under his head and a blanket thrown across him. “Leave him be,” the vampire says, and then Felix is asleep again.

~

Noise wakes him the next time. The pain he’s come to know well is less insistent. He rolls on the sofa, grasping for his surroundings. The room falls back into silence and Felix suddenly realizes that it was laughter that woke him. Slowly, he opens his eyes.

From behind the curtains, it appears to be night. He’s in the same room he was when he last woke, but now, there are others as well. The redhead is the first that notices him, eyebrows jumping as he watches Felix. There are four others in the room, all flushed with happiness and drinking something from crystalline glasses. Felix hopes it’s just wine. “Hello.” The one who turned him is clearly their leader. Everyone else turns their faces up to him like he’s their messiah. “My name is Sylvain.”

Felix doesn’t respond. Sylvain doesn’t seem to expect him to. “This is the nest that you were hired to eradicate.” He scans the faces of the other monsters. In the flickering candlelight, they almost look normal. If not for the perfect posture and stillness they hold themselves at. Felix’s gaze lands on the blond one he wounded. He seems perfectly healed now. “This is the nest that you now belong to.”

If Felix had anything in his belly, he would have thrown it up. Instead, he closes his eyes and takes a long breath. “I’m not usually in the practice of bringing those in who don’t ask for it…” Sylvain trails off. He stands up and begins to close the distance between them. “But you were a… special case.” He takes a seat on the edge of the lounge, next to Felix’s feet. “And now, you’re ours.”

“Fuck you,” he mutters.

Sylvain laughs and Felix is sickened by the fact that it isn’t entirely unkind. “I’m sure that you’ve noticed the changes in your body so far. There are more to come, once you feed for the first time.” Now, Felix does roll over and retch onto the ground. Bile spills from between his lips and burns his throat.

Someone rushes toward them. He expects to be punished for making a mess, but he’s offered a handkerchief instead. A pretty girl with auburn hair is offering it to him while she glares at Sylvain. Felix wipes his mouth and someone else tosses a towel over the mess on the floor. “What he means to say,” she hisses in Sylvain’s direction, before dropping back down to Felix’s level, “Is that you’re in a lot of pain right now. That pain will go away once you… drink. And then you’ll really be one of us.” She lifts a hand like she’s thinking about touching him, before thinking better of it.

Felix drops the hanky on the floor and rolls onto his back. “No.”

She sighs. “I’m Annette by the way.” He grunts. “The one you shot is Dimitri.” He rolls his head to the side and watches the big blond one wave at him. She points at a silver haired boy. “Ashe,” her finger moves to the last in the room, “Linhardt.” They all give him little waves and Felix thinks he might be sick again. They’re too human.

He rolls onto his other side, staring at the back of the sofa instead of into the rest of the room. She sighs at his back and moves away from the lounge. A hand lands on his calf and he kicks it off. “You know, we usually feed from people who want it.”

Felix kicks Sylvain hard in the hip and snarls, “Who on earth would want that from you monsters?”

He swings his head around wildly, staring at each of the vampires as they gape at him. Sylvain stands from the lounge and stares stonily down at him. “You’re one of those ‘monsters’ now.”

Felix curls his lip and rolls up into a ball.

~

He’s holding Glenn. Rain pours down all around them, soaking Felix to the bone until he’s shivering and he can’t tell the rain from his tears. Blood sticks to them both, never successfully washed away by the rain pounding down around them. It’s night, Felix doesn’t know when Rodrigue will find them.

Suddenly, Glenn’s eyes open. Felix sobs with relief and presses his forehead to Glenn’s sternum. Only for his big brother to scream and push him away. Felix lets go of him and pitches forward, snot dripping down over his mouth as Glenn scrambles away from him. “Monster! Monster!” He’s crying out, as scared as Felix has ever seen him. It’s then that he starts throwing up blood. Somehow, he knows it’s Glenn’s.

He jerks awake. It’s dark outside, but light in this room. He’s shifted into their nocturnal cycle without even noticing. He’s not alone--he never is anymore--and he scrubs at his eyes, hoping the evidence of his nightmare is hard to notice. The one named Ashe sits on the other side of the room at a heavy oak desk. He’s reading a book and scratching notes into a piece of parchment.

Felix has been trapped here for at least a week now. Maybe longer. He sleeps for long periods at a time, never quite able to track the days as they slip away from him. They haven’t been able to force him to feed yet and his body shows the signs of his refusal. The pain never abates. It feels like his body is at war with itself, ripping apart at the seams and pushing him to ruin.

“You know, I had to beg for Sylvain to change me.” Felix jerks at the sound of the vampire’s voice. He’s the one that speaks the least out of all of them. Annette tries to convince him to eat, Sylvain tells stupid stories, Dimitri voices every disgusting thought he has and Linhardt is prone to babbling about his books. Ashe is quiet. He doesn’t look away from his book as he starts to recount the tale that he’s already heard from the rest of them. “I’m from a big family with too many mouths to feed. Sylvian fed from me and paid me, but I was still another mouth at the table.”

He flips the page in his book and lights another candle on the desk. “When I found out he could change me, bring me here… I begged for it.” Ashe laughs and finally glances toward Felix. “Leaving them was the hardest thing I’ve ever done. But now, I can send them money, give them gifts and support myself.” He grabs his fountain pen and checks the well. “Sylvain did a bad thing to you. And I haven’t forgiven him yet. But you can be happy here.” Ashe gives him a long look, before he returns to making his notes.

Felix closes his eyes, but doesn’t sleep for many hours.

~

The girl arrives two days after that. She’s pretty and human--the first he’s seen in so long. It throws his entire reality into a sharp contrast. Her cheeks are full and flushed, happy and giddy at being up so late. Everyone seems to know her, but Felix can’t catch her name. He’s too focused on restraining the gnawing hunger in his gut and the pain that makes him feel half mad.

Sylvain sits on the end of the lounge and Felix barely even notices with how hard he’s focusing. She has a full figure, but she dresses modestly, covered up to her throat. After a few minutes of chatter, her focus turns to Felix. Her eyes are dark and unbearably knowing. She reminds him so much of Glenn he thinks he might cry.

“You need to eat,” Sylvain says. Felix jumps and his eyes dart quickly between him and the girl. Her earlier giddy chatter has been replaced by a deep, dark silence. Felix is terrified to look at her for too long. His eyes jump back to Sylvain and he looks pained. “I don’t want to force you--”

“But you will,” Felix snaps.

Sylvain sighs and scrubs his hands through his hair. “You’re on the verge of /death/, Felix. What do you expect from me?”

“You deserve to have my death on your hands,” he spits.

The human grabs Felix’s ankles and swings them down off the lounge. He nearly pitches forward with the momentum, but she catches him and pushes him back against the sofa. “He will make you,” she says. Her voice is low and melodic, without a single space for argument. Felix opens his mouth to do it anyway, and she slides her thumb between his lips. On instinct, his jaw closes and one of his fangs scrapes against her skin. “You can taste it, can’t you?” She tilts her head at him and Felix realizes that he can. The sickening call of blood beneath her fragile skin.

She nods decisively and pulls her thumb out of his mouth. She pins him with the weight of her gaze alone and lifts her hands to undo a button at her throat. He realizes that it’s a collar that she peels away to expose her throat. It’s marked with little circular scars, most faded and pink. “Why?” Felix murmurs.

She discards her lace collar and leans into him. Her hands come up around his neck, fingers scratching at the base of his skull. “It feels good,” she says simply, giving a little shrug. As weak as he is, Felix finds himself unable to pull away when she guides his mouth to her throat. She positions him how she likes, until his fangs are scraping at that tissue paper skin and he’s drooling with animalistic hunger. “Bite.” His jaw twitches, but still, he resists. 

She sighs and waits another long moment before she says, “Sylvain, if you would.”

Felix flinches away, but the vampire doesn’t touch him. “Felix,” he says. His voice cuts deep into Felix’s head and curls around his thoughts. “Feed.” The word rattles around in Felix’s head, reverberating and growing until it’s the only thing he can think of. His jaw widens and he whines, whether in fear or desperation, he doesn’t know. His mouth clamps shut and blood suddenly gushes into his mouth. “Good, good.” This rolls through Felix like Sylvain’s thrall did, sweet and hot and perfect all over his body. He shivers and sucks at the ragged wound he’s left in the woman.

Already, his fatigue begins to fade, strength returning to him with each pulse of her heart. He grabs at her desperately, feeling crazed with sating his hunger, no other thoughts remaining in his head. The moment stretches long, until his senses sharpen and he begins to feel like something larger than himself. For a horrifying second, he thinks that he won’t be able to stop.

A hand curls around his elbow and Sylvain flays him open again. “That’s enough.” Felix pulls back, blood spilling from the corners of his mouth as he gulps down the last of it. The woman looks a bit paler, but Dimitri helps her stand. He leans down and licks at the ragged bite Felix left in her throat. The skin knits back together, blood slowing and clotting until she smiles and pushes him away.

Sylvain tugs on his elbow and Felix’s attention pivots over to him. He smiles and still, everything in Felix’s body screams to get away from him. Sylvain tugs on him a little harder and Felix collapses against his side. An arm curls around him, secure and comforting. Felix can’t remember the last time someone held him like this. “You did well.”

Felix swallows. His mouth still tastes like copper, saliva thick with blood. “I don’t want to do it again.”

Sylvain squeezes him. “You will.” Felix squeezes his eyes shut and doesn’t try to fight the touch. 

**Author's Note:**

> thanks for reading :3


End file.
